During various processing operations, a processing material is provided in coils, spools, or reels, which are wound for distribution. The material is generally mounted on a dispenser, such as a dereeler, which supplies the material during processing. For example, a spool or reel of material is frequently mounted on a pallet, and rotated about an axle to feed the material to a processing machine. In order to provide a continuous or substantially continuous feed of material, large spools or reels of material are typically used.
Currently, dereelers are stationary, with individual spools of material being removably mounted thereto for processing. Often, a forklift or other machinery is required to transport the spools and/or change materials between stationary dereelers. The changing of the materials using forklifts or other machinery includes individual transportation of the material spools, which requires multiple trips from a loading area to each processing area. The multiple trips required to remove one spool of material and replace it with another increase processing risk, increase processing time, and decrease processing efficiency. Additionally, each of the stationary dereelers requires separate control mechanisms, which increases the cost of the processing system.
One method of decreasing down time includes the use of multiple forklifts or other machinery to transport the individual spools. However, using multiple pieces of machinery further increases processing costs as well as the risks associated with transporting the spools of material.
A system and method with improvements in the process and/or the properties of the components formed would be desirable in the art.